Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

On Teachings and Teachers

With Martin Aylward recorded on March 17, 2018.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

People often ask about the importance (or not) of working closely with a teacher. One can benefit greatly from general meditation instruction, but personalised guidance from someone who knows you and your practice well can be deeply helpful.

In this session, Martin speaks about approaching teachers for guidance and about the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship; the promise, the potency, and the possible perils and pitfalls.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of January 17, 2022

    This week’s theme is: Embracing Anger.

    How do you deal with your feelings of anger?

    Is it okay to be angry at times or do we need to get rid of it once and for all?

    Meeting our anger can be a challenge, as it comes with a driving energy and tends to evoke reactions of blame, fear or delight within us. The Buddha encouraged us to familiarize ourselves with all expressions of the heart-mind but equally warned about the destructive forces of ill-will. Let us look deeply into the nature of anger and learn ways to channel it in skilful and liberating ways.

    Read More

  • Ronya Banks

    Untangling the Tangle

    The Buddha often described our practice in terms of untangling the tangles we find ourselves caught in. Together, let us uncover the primary tangles we get tangled in and how we can use our Buddhist practices to become free from these tangles. “A tangle within, a tangle without, people are entangled in a tangle. Gotama,…

    Read More

  • Shaila Catherine

    The power of intention.

    Worldwide Insight talk from Shaila Catherine: “The Power of Intention”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  • George Haas

    Meditation and Attachment Theory

    We will discuss Attachment Theory in the context of Buddhist Theravada Practice, exploring the traditional Buddhist path to liberation using descriptions of Attachment conditioning as a way to understand obstacles to practice. We will learn skillful ways of assembling an inner circle of close people to support your path to enlightenment.

    Read More

  • Return to Unity: Seeing Through Duality

    Dualities are endless. Why? Because when we look through the lens of duality, everything seen appears to be dualistic. Join Caverly for a Dharma talk revolving around a reading from her new book The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together, published by Sounds True. This session also includes a practice from the book that supports us in returning to unity.

    Read More

  • Freedom without Expectations

    One of the Buddha’s primary realisations was ‘Life is painful and then you die.’ If this is true, then how do we respond to the difficulties of life? This session will explore how we are conditioned to protect, promote and satisfy a ‘self’ which can never be satisfied because ‘we are the slaves of craving.’ There will…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Jaya Rudgard – Week of October 3, 2022

    This week’s theme is “The Practice of Courage in Everyday Life”

    Courage is an essential quality in life and on the spiritual path and it comes in many guises. Anything that challenges our unhelpful habits requires a capacity for determination and the stretching of our comfort zones. This week’s morning meetings will reflect on some of the ways we can cultivate courage in meditation and daily life and resource ourselves to meet the challenges of living in these times.

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Love for the world

    In our last class of 2017, our guiding teacher Martin offers reflections on life, love and liberation, looking particularly at some of the challenging events and elements of worldly life, and pointing towards a skilful, loving and courageous engagement with the world and everyone in it.

    Read More